We want to welcome you to our play. It is called “Sir Bookworm.” You will enjoy hearing from some of our favorite book characters. Some of the books you will recognize are Santa, Rudolph, Pinocchio, Peter Rabbit, Huckleberry Finn, Alice in Wonderland, Harry Potter, The Cat In The Hat, Paul Bunyan, and many others.

We all love to read and have spent many hours reading our favorite books. We want to share them with you. Please sit back and enjoy our presentation of “Sir Bookworm, the Christmas Addition”

Sir Bookworm: (enters and takes his place at the podium)

Hello everybody! I’m so glad you came!

Before I begin, let me tell you my name.

I am Sir Bookworm – Professor of Reading.

In classrooms, at home, and in faculty meetings.

I handle the print and words and the format

For textbooks and novels and even your doormat.

For menus and comics and cereal labels

For baseball stats and for maps and for tables.

Girl: (stands up in the audience – approaches Sir Bookworm yelling)

Hey You! Mr. Bookmouth, what makes you so cool?

I’m tired of constantly reading in school.

You think it’s important? Well, I think it’s not!

So take your books! Get lost! Let them rot!

We’ll show all those teachers who still make us read.

That it’s useless, old-fashioned, a skill we don’t need.

Why this is the new millennium. Computers! DVDs!

With all that is out there, why should I read?

Sir Bookworm:

My goodness, you’ve worked yourself into a stew.

Ranting and raving that books aren’t for you.

Just sit yourself down on this soft, comfy chair

And let your mind wander whenever and where.

To the ends of the earth, to the corner of space

Wherever it stops is just the right place!

(Directs the girl to the chair where she plops down and promptly goes to sleep)

Sir Bookworm:

Oh good! She’s asleep! Now to handle this mess.

I’ll ask books she’s read for assistance, I guess.

Attention, you books, who have sat on her shelf.

Come around to remind her and defend yourself!

Let’s try to convince her. Let’s set this girl straight.

Knock the dust off your pages before it’s too late.

(Book characters enter one at a time carrying a poster-sized cover of their respective books. Each goes to the podium, speaks, leaves the cover for the audience to see, and exits. Sir Bookworm remains throughout.)

Santa:

Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas! (looks at girl sleeping and then his list).

Now let me see. This little girl, named Missy No-read,

why she is on the naughty list for not believing in books.

Why it can’t be. Everyone knows that books are good for you.

Well if she wants to get back on the nice list

she is going to have to change her tune (pause).

Oh well I’ve gotta keep moving, so much to do.

Merry Christmas to you all!

Rudolph: A little girl who doesn’t believe in reading.

Oh my, even on a foggy night it

seems clear to me that reading is the key.

To help her maybe I should I lead her to a pack of books?

Or maybe amaze her with my beeping nose (pause)

I know, instead of Santa shouting Fly! Fly!

He needs to say Read! Read!

Everyone believes Santa.

That’s what I’ll do I’ll let Santa know right quick.

Reporter:

Hi I’m Stanley Smalltown Reporter Rightinski.

Was that Rudolph just now? (pause) It was.

Well let me give you a news scoop about Rudolph you may not know.

I’ll sing what I know.

Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer(reindeer)

-finger antlers

Was a very good reader (like Sir Bookworm) -point at Sir Bookworm

And if you ever saw him (saw him) -hands around the eyes

You would even say he was smart (like Einstein) -point to brain

All of the other reindeer (reindeer) -finger antlers

Used to laugh and call him names (like Pinochio) -long nose

They never let poor Rudolph (Rudolph) -frown face

Play in any reindeer games (like Monopoly) -roll dice

Then one foggy Christmas Eve

Santa came to say (Ho Ho Ho) -jazz hands

Rudolph with your head so bright

Won't you guide my sleigh tonight?

Then all the reindeer loved him (loved him) -hand on heart

And they shouted out with glee (yippee) -fist pump

"Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer (reindeer) -point to nose

I’m so glad you could read a map for me!

(like Columbus) -hand over eyebrows looking in the distance

Scrooge:

Ba Humbug! This girl is off her rocker!

I once hated books and Christmas of past.

But see how you feel girl when three ghosts float past.

I’ve learned a great deal and reading did help.

So listen to my Christmas Carol before your time too has left.

Cinderella:

This must be a nightmare! This cannot be true!

Is she saying Prince Charming and I are all through?

It’s not even midnight! So what does she mean?

That I’ll never again get to play out this scene?

If we do as she says and throw all books away,

Where will dreams come from and where will they stay?

I’d rather sweep ashes and sleep on the floor

Than to never live in a book anymore.

Ramona Quimby:

My name is Ramona and I’m only eight.

It isn’t my turn, but I just couldn’t wait!

I tried to bring Beezus, but she was in tears,

So I came without her, do you like my new ears?

It just seems to Henry and Ribsy and me

That tossing out books is so silly, you see.

‘Cause books make us laugh, make us think, make us feel!

Things that are special and things that are real.

Athlete:

Athletes write books thinking kids want to know

About training and workouts and get-up-and-go.

But this girl isn’t “with it”. Her thinking’s all bent!

Her get -up-and-go must have got-up-and-went!

If she read one good book or even a fraction,

She’d know that in books there is plenty of action!

Besides all the history and places and more,

There are people, events, and adventures galore!

12 Days of Christmas (boy or girl):

I think the 12 days of Christmas is good but, she

needs to know the 12 days of reading.

I think she should find a hobby she likes and to read it!

What better way than a book?

So for her, I wish that on the first day of Christmas her true love gave her

(sung) a great book under the tree.

Huckleberry Finn:

I ain’t very smart. Never had too much schoolin’

But me and Tom Sawyer is mad…I ain’t foolin’

Ya’ know, I was happy out there on the river,

But this crazy news skeers me right out of my liver!

So I left my friend Jim to see to the boat.

He’s s’posed to make sure that old thing stays afloat.

And Tom and me come here – we figgered we’d oughtter.

A’fore this young girl tossed us both in the water.

The Cat in the Hat:

Poor Horton, his egg, and Bartholomew Cubbins

Have bitten their fingernails down to the nubbins!

Now how will the little ones find out you see,

About red shoes and blue shoes and 1, 2, and 3?

We’re all so worried that this little girl will get loose

And that’ll be it for our good Doctor Suess.

The rest of the world likes to read – I know that.

In fact, I’m so sure that I’d bet my striped hat!

Fern Arable:

I’m Fern and I’m scared for I’m not a good fighter.

I guess that I should’ve sent Charlotte, the spider.

Or Templeton – he’s such a crafty old rat.

He’d have stood up to her “this” and “that”.

All of us here know that girl shed a tear

When it seemed that poor Charlotte’s time was so near.

And how could she wish dear Wilber such harm

As to throw away all of the Zuckerman farm?

Paul Bunyan:

Who says books are useless? Must be a dunce.

Why I usually read nine or ten all at once.

Each day while I’m chopping away with my ax

I read at least four hundred paper backs.

And once in a blizzard in mid-January

I read every book in the public library.

I cannot believe how this foolish girl talks.

Everyone reads, even Babe, my blue ox.

Jill:

My hair’s quite a mess! I just fell down the hill.

Poor Jack couldn’t make it, he’s feeling quite ill.

Though sometimes we fuss like most other kids do.

We sure don’t deserve to be told that we’re through.

Why, thousands of kids right down through the ages

Have learned and enjoyed all our nursery rhyme pages.

This girl must’ve gotten a knock on the head

To think that good books should no longer be read.

PEEF: Hi my name is PEEF, the Christmas Bear.

This is a fuzzy problem that tricks me a lot.

She really needs to lightenup or all my stitches will pop.

Should Santa give this girl a gift of coal

or will someone find a way to help see

that reading can be all the colors of the rainbow?

Good luck Santa.

Snow White:

Oh dear, Mr. Bookworm, we’ve just heard what was said.

Now Bashful won’t get out from under the bed.

Sweet Happy is furious, Sneezy’s congested,

And Sleepy’s afraid he’ll never feel rested.

Doc is unhappy and poor Dopey’s a mess.

And Grumpy’s more crabby, not a bit less!

Without books I’m sure I can’t handle this crew,

For fairy tales are all we know how to do!

Laura Ingalls:

I just can’t believe this! I’ve known her for ages!

She’s been there with me for pages and pages!

We left the big woods and lived out on the prairie.

She seemed so concerned for my dear sister Mary.

We moved to Plum Creek and she went right along.

I just can’t imagine where I have gone wrong!

Ma and Pa think this girl’s really confused.

No books to learn history or new points of view:

Peter Rabbit:

My mother would really be mad if she heard

That I’d left my own reading to put in a word.

This girl can’t stop reading. She mustn’t – not yet

Old Mr. McGregor’s new garden’s all set.

She was the girl I saw following me,

As I wriggled and hid and tried to get free!

Didn’t she laugh when I tricked the old goat?

If she keeps reading books, she can have my blue coat.

Neil Armstrong:

All reading is very important to me.

It lets each of us be the best we can be.

Reading and learning helped me take my place,

First in this world and then out in space.

I walked on the moon and as I took a look,

I knew that it all could be saved in a book.

Just imagine if only I’d gotten to see,

The sights the world shares in books now with me.

Alice In Wonderland:

This girl went with me to Wonderland

We saw the Mad Hatter, the White Rabbit and

We had a tea party that went on and on

How can she think that all books should be gone?

Polar Express (young boy):

Hello, I’m the boy from the Polar Express.

Many of my family can’t hear the sweet sound

of the Christmas bell but I still can (could shake a bell).

And if this girl is smart she will too.

You see believing in things like bells

and books just makes good sense.

For her sake I hope she comes to believe.

Encyclopedia Brown:

If you want to solve mysteries you sure have to read!

Good common sense is not all that you need!

With Sally, my friend, in small Centerville

We solve all the cases with lots of good skill.

The Stinky Sneaker Case was one of our best.

This girl should have been there with all of the rest.

Dorothy:

I’m Dorothy from Kansas and I know what to do.

The Scarecrow, the Tin Man, the Lion, and Toto too!

We cannot accept that this girl doesn’t read

The Wizard can fix her – you’d better believe!

Pinocchio:

I’m made of wood, but yet I know

That reading books is the way to go.

This girl will turn into a donkey, I guess.

Not reading will make the world such a mess!

Red Riding Hood

With my red hood and my basket, I went through the woods,

The wolf wanted to stop me from delivering my goods.

That wolf was fierce, his teeth were long,

It’s a good thing that woodcutter was so strong.

If we didn’t have this story, I wonder --- I fear!

What would have happened to my Grandmother Dear!

Harry Potter:

I’m Harry Potter, I’m a wizard, you see.

In training at Hogwarts is where you’ll find me.

I’m studying to learn potions and spells galore,

But without my books, I can’t learn any more!

Even muggles know books are needed in the fall,

And Hermione knows it – that big know-it-all.

Maybe this girl needs a spell or two

To find out that books are good for me and for you.

Hermione:

I’m a wizard also, named Hermione.

I am very smart, but I’m not a know-it-all.

It’s just that I read all winter, spring, summer, and fall.

I can’t understand what she’s trying to say,

Without books I can’t imagine the day!

Oh please, keep on reading, then you will know

How Harry, Ron, and I learn and grow.

Frosty: I’m going to melt with all this sadness. I have a sense for books. I don’t know anyone that dosen’t like books. If she reads just one book it will defrost her brain! I’m sorry folks I’m a little sad. Do you mind singing Frosty the Snowman with me? (wait for a yes) OK here we go.

Frosty the snowman was a jolly happy soul, With a corncob pipe and a button nose And two eyes made out of coal. Frosty the snowman is a fairy tale, they say, He was made of snow but the children Know how he came to life one day. There must have been some magic in that Old silk hat they found. For when they placed it on his head He began to dance around. O, Frosty the snowman Was alive as he could be, And the children say he could laugh And play just the same as you and me.

Twas the Night:

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the school

Not a book was a stirring, not even a once.

Oh how they were stacked in the classrooms with care,

In hopes that a reader soon would be there.

When out on this stage there arose such a clatter,

I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter.

When what to my wondering eyes should appear,

But an uncaring girl who believes stories not.

Well I can tell you

I would much preferred a miniature sleigh, and eight reindeer.

But all I can say is Merry Christmas to all and to all,

(look over at the girl) including the non-readers Good Night!

Grinch:

Look here, Mr. Bookworm, who’s this snippety-snit

Who thinks she can toss me out and that’s it.

The Whos down in Whoville can certainly see

That it’s not very easy to get rid of me!

I’m known for removing all joy and delight,

But instead I am bringing a gift for her tonight.

Give it to her – it’s something she lacks

It’s the great “Joy of Reading”. I’m giving it back.

Sir Bookworm hands the Girl the package. She begins to waken. She opens the package and sits up straight, as if stunned.

Girl:

Oh, Mr. Bookworm, let me tell where I’ve been!

On the river with Tom and good ol’ Huck Finn!

To deliver toys with Santa! To the Polar Express!

To McGregor’s fresh garden, on Prince Charming’s arm!

I walked with Paul Bunyan as he chopped down a tree,

Then spent time with Laura out on the prairie!

Oh, Mr. Bookworm, I’ve been wrong! I can see……

I’ll never stop reading ‘cause books are for me!

Girl stands up and is joined by the rest of the cast, picking up their posters.